Party Purification by Fire
Our alert staff already tipped you off to the breaking Arlen Specter story today, (see Holly and Patrick for details) but I have a few more brief thoughts to add. Pennsylvania is a perfect microcosm of what I’ve seen going on in my former party for some time now. The land of Rocky is a swing state which has been swinging in precisely the wrong direction for the GOP for several cycles now. To see how this illustrates the future of the GOP – at least in its current story arc – we need look no further than the twin stories of two Republicans from PA…. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum.
Rick was (and remains) a darling of the far Right – a fire and brimstone social conservative, thumping a bible with one fist and pummeling lily-livered liberals with the other. He is still a featured speaker at prominent conservative gatherings and his name is spoken wistfully in GOP chat rooms. Specter has, for some time now, received nothing but the back of the hand from his own party. His willingness to work with “the enemy” and to try to find some bright spots in Obama’s policy plans have earned him the hatred of the conservative base and a list of names not fit for publication at TMV.
Now pause to ask yourself the Big Money Questions. Where is Santorum now? And where is Specter? That should tell you all you need to know. The GOP base and some of their vocal spokespeople have treated Specter worse than they do the Maine Sisters for some time now. As a reward, they apparently will get what they have desired. Arlen will now officially give the Democrats their filibuster-proof 60 vote margin in the Senate as soon as Al Franken is seated.
Good job, GOP. Way to keep driving us RINOs out of the party.
(Track reactions across the spectrum at Memeorandum today.)
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56 Responses to “Party Purification by Fire”
edfgt: Please stick to discussing issues. We don’t have our comments policy posted as we did for several years, and some of your comments are close to the line and, in the eyes of some, over them. The best approach — one where you actually might change some minds — is to just focus on what someone wrote or what people say in comments…then counter it with your best argument or try to knock it down. But zingers such as you left are on very shaky territory and when we have let them go on it goes way out of control. Just give us your best take on the issues and you might cause someone to reconsider.
“Was he a good Republican? According to the people who kept electing him, apparently he was good enough. And he voted his own brand of Republican ideology.”
What's interesting is that McCain was known as a maverick and in order to shore up the conservative base he had to choose someone like Palin, who also claimed she was a maverick from Alaska.
Yet the GOP wants its elected officials to vote party line. They like the idea of mavericks but I guess they only like mavericks if those mavericks will do what the party wants them to do.
It's seems that the moderates are their own brand of mavericks, just more moderate
and the GOP does not welcome them….
CS
This dovetails nicely with yesterday's discussion of what moderates must do to be part of the Republican party. I guess the absolutism of the Club for Growth sure showed that RINO the door; same for moderate Republicans in Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico and Rhode Island. Maybe absolutism is not the answer for political growth, but by all means, let the GOP demonstrate I'm wrong.
After the Democrats bring the U6 unemployment numbers down to 6% and real wages start going up 3 to 4 % a year for ten, fifteen years, maybe, just maybe people will forget what a cluster-f**k the Bush administration was and start voting for Conservative Republicans.
The irony lost on all the Republicans rushing to throw Specter under the bus is the simple fact that as a sixtieth Democrat, he now has a greater ability to gain concessions and effect the outcome of the nation's future more than he would ever have had as a lock step ideologue. He's being chastised for gaining the real power to sway votes that the party of NO merely covets.
The “specter” of party purity surely burns brightly when fed with the absolute certainty of unquestioning partisanship.
Isn't it a pustule on Limpbaughs backside that keep his patriotic self from Vietnam? Thew wingnuts chirp…